


Yule

by kittymaine



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Explicit Language, Holidays, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:49:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25287847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kittymaine/pseuds/kittymaine
Summary: Cloud realizes the day before Yule that he hasn't bought a present for Zack and has to scramble to find one. Luckily, Aerith and Tifa are there to help.
Relationships: Zack Fair/Cloud Strife
Comments: 4
Kudos: 35
Collections: Slice of Clack: July 2020





	Yule

**Author's Note:**

> This fic exists in the nebulous space after a longfic I've been thinking about, but haven't written yet. For the purpose of this setting, Cloud and Zack met under different circumstances which led to Midgard not being destroyed and Aerith not biting the big one. Cloud and Zack have been in an established relationship for a while when this fic starts.
> 
> Also, I think Christmas might exist in the original game, I couldn't remember, but decided to use Yule as a stand in for Christmas because I thought it was the closest analogue to what might actually exist after Shinra goes away.
> 
> This was written for the Slice of Clack challenge. The theme was celebration and the specific prompt was holidays.

“So, what are you getting Zack for Yule?” Tifa asked from across the bar.

Cloud’s head jerked up from where he had been staring deeply into the bottom of his whiskey glass, thinking about a whole lot of nothing.

“Yule?” Cloud asked, frowning. “It’ll be awhile before then, right?” he asked, hoping he was right. The frown that settled on Tifa’s face quickly told him he was wrong.

“Cloud, Yule is in two days. Did you seriously not notice?” she asked, straightening up from where she had been leaned against the bar to balance her hands on her hips and give him a proper look of disapproval.

Cloud grimaced and looked back down at his drink. “I saw people putting up decorations and stuff, but I didn’t really think about it.”

Cloud didn’t have to look at Tifa to know that her look had gone from angry to disappointed. The way her feet shifted and her hands dropped from her hips told him all of that.

This would be the first Yule that Cloud would spend with someone else since he left home. At least, it would be the first time he would spend Yule with someone else while there was no crisis going on.

Back in Nibelheim, Yule was a big event. They still didn’t have big celebrations like a more prosperous town might, but it was something people prepared for months in advance. Most people in the tiny village didn’t have enough money to really throw a big party or give any big gifts, but people would put up pine boughs above their doors and kids would get candies or fruits and the moms would cook a big breakfast, the biggest one they could manage anyway.

Cloud had noted when he came to Midgar that it seemed like Yule and most of the other holidays he grew up with weren’t really observed. Shinra had their own company holidays and those seemed to be the only ones that anyone cared about or celebrated with any real fanfare. The wheel of the year holidays were there, mostly under the plate, but if you celebrated them in view of Shinra you were treated like a country bumpkin. Cloud supposed it was just another way of trying to twist culture to forget about the old ways of honoring the planet. At least, that’s probably what Barrett would have said. Cloud had never given it much thought.

After Shinra had shut down and then rebranded, the old holidays had started to come back with a vengeance. Lammas had been a big deal that summer and Cloud and Zack had both enjoyed the festivals and all the food stands. Zack especially had loved all the people and all that happy joyful energy.

There was no point in hoping that Zack wasn’t thinking about Yule. This was the kind of thing he would be all about.

Groaning, Cloud rested his elbows on the bar and put his head in his hands.

Sighing, Tifa pat Cloud on the head. “You’ve still got time,” she reassured him, scratching her short fingernails through his unruly hair. “So long as you get something, he won’t have to know you forgot. Just get him something nice, you know?”

“Fuck, Tifa,” Cloud groaned, letting his head fall forward onto the hard waxy surface of the bar. He tapped his forehead against it, taking the tacky stick of the bar against his skin as his rightful punishment. “I’m so bad at this. I don’t know what to get him.”

“It’s not that hard,” Tifa said sternly, now grabbing at the root of his hair and giving him a little shake, only letting go when Cloud let out a lackluster ‘ow’. “You probably know Zack better than anyone. The two of you certainly spend enough time together. There’s a bazaar in Sector 5. Why don’t you go there and look around a little. I’m sure you’ll find something.”

“Ugh,” Cloud responded elegantly.

“Why don’t I call Aerith?” Tifa suggested. “She can go along and help you pick out something.

“Hell no,” Cloud grunted, turning his face to the side so he could get that out clearly. “She’s chaotic enough as it is. I’m sure she’s twice as bad during Yule.”

“Yeah,” Tifa said slowly, her mouth twisting into a small smile despite herself. “But, she and Zack have similar personalities. If you can keep her focused long enough, she should be able to help you find something.”

“I hate this,” Cloud muttered into the wood.

“You’ll live,” Tifa said flatly.

* * *

Cloud met up with Aerith at the sector 5 train platform after he got off of work the next day. Zack had been almost impossible to deflect when he found out Cloud was going somewhere that he wasn’t allowed to tag along, nor could he know where he was going, but Cloud was eventually able to pry him off and foist him on Ms. Folia. Her flat stare and enviable ability to withstand basically any annoyance meant Zack was stuck, the only person Cloud knew that Zack couldn't charm his way around at least some of the time.

By the time Cloud was getting off the train, he sort of wished that he had failed to shake off Zack. Aerith and Zack got along so well it was like they were two halves of the same brain. There was a good chance if he brought Zack along, he could have waited until Zack and Aerith were wrapped up in something or other and then snuck off to shop by himself. The downside of that plan was that he would eventually have to try and find them later, which could be a pain. When they got together, they tended to lose track of time and their phones and where they were to the point that they could be almost anywhere in Midgar by the time a few hours had gone by.

No, it was probably better to stick to the plan and have Aerith help him with buying a gift.

"Cloud! Hey, over here!" Aerith's voice called to him as he stepped off the train. Looking around, Cloud spotted her over near a food stand, waving her hand at him and nearly beaning some guy in the face when he walked too close.

Cloud raised his own hand in a much smaller wave and jogged over to her. The smell coming off the foodstand she was standing beside was heavenly and once he got closer he saw why. Aerith was holding a paper plate with a crunchy lattice of fried dough topped with powdered sugar. Judging by the bits that had been ripped off already and the powdered sugar on her fingers and around her mouth, Aerith had been occupied while she had been waiting.

"How was your ride? Everything went okay?" Aerith asked, drawing his attention away from her snack.

"It was fine," Cloud answered shortly. "Have you been waiting long?" he frowned, worried that she had been waiting around for him for a while, even if she had got a snack while she was waiting.

"No, not at all!" she said happily. "Besides, I got a funnel cake. Do you want some?" she asked, holding out the paper plate.

Cloud frowned at it for a moment. It was literally just fried dough and sugar. If Tifa saw him eating something like that, he would surely catch hell for it. Ever since Midgar started recovering, all kinds of good food was showing up and it was hard to resist it all. Cloud glanced at Aerith, who was smiling at him mischievously like she knew what he was thinking.

"Just a little," Cloud agreed before ripping off a piece of sugared dough and popping it in his mouth.

They started walking and talking, Cloud eating much more of the funnel cake than he intended. Aerith was boisterous and excited about helping to find a present and told Cloud that she had been through the Yule bazaar three times already and that it was just great and she was absolutely sure they would find something for Zack there. The area the bazaar was in used to be the scrap graveyard but had since been cleaned up and was now used as a sort of impromptu event grounds until the city decided what they wanted to do with it. As they got closer the crowds grew thicker, people moving in groups of two and three, everyone happy and chattering, not unlike himself and Aerith.

"What was Yule like when you were young?" Aerith asked as they got closer to the bazaar, the smell of good food and winter spice getting stronger the closer they got. "You grew up in the north right?"

Cloud nodded and popped the last piece of the funnel cake in his mouth when Aerith offered it to him. "We celebrated, more so than Midgar did five years ago. But, it was nothing like this," Cloud trailed off as they walked under the entrance way, built of latticed recycled tin that had been painted white and threaded with sweet smelling pine boughs and then threaded again with bright white lights that twinkled and cast a gentle light over the heads of the people who passed beneath it.

Once they were through the entrance, an array of stands were laid out in orderly rows before them. Some of the stands had colorful cloth coverings, others were like small stores with shelves and tables set up with just enough room to scoot around them and still more were little more than a table with wares spread out on top and a chair for the owner to sit in.

"Come on! This way!" Aerith exclaimed, grabbing Cloud by his wrist and hauling him through the crowds and to the eastern edge of the bazaar. She obviously knew exactly where she was going so Cloud didn't protest, instead struggling to keep up without knocking anyone over. Aerith led him to a much more narrow aisle of stalls, away from the food and the bigger stands, most of them small with only a few tables and maybe a sign hung up to let you know what they were selling.

"The town pooled their money to buy this aisle, so this is all from sector 5 locals!" Aerith declared with a saucy wink while gesturing down the aisle.

Cloud kept his face impassive even as a stone settled somewhere in his stomach. Even though the lifestyles of the people who lived under the plate were improving, they still had it hard. This Yule bazaar was in the sector 5 underplate, but only this small aisle and these small stalls were from people who actually lived there. It worried Cloud to think that all those other stands had given him the impression that the slums were doing much better than they were. And, obviously, Aerith would want to support the other people from her sector and drum up business for them. Sometimes it hurt to think how much of a good person she was.

"Let's get something here," Cloud said, somewhat at a loss for what else he could say.

It seemed he said the right thing anyway, because his response had Aerith lighting up even more. With a squeal of excitement, she dragged him over to the stall that was closest to them and they started looking.

What Cloud had hoped would only be a short activity before he could head home turned out to take the rest of his day. It was incredibly hard to pick a gift that seemed worthy of Zack and all Cloud felt he deserved. Aerith liked almost everything they came across, from bedazzled Yule themed knick knacks to recycled colored glass jewelry to weird specialized items like jelly moulds and knitting bowls. She would argue for each item, coming up with some reason or another why Zack would be overcome to receive that item as a gift. Cloud picked out thick hand knitted socks that he thought would be practical considering how long Zack had to spend on his feet and how he always complained that his feet were cold, but Aerith was quick to veto that idea. 'Who wants to get socks for Yule?' she had cried, looking despondent that Cloud had even suggested such a gift.

Eventually, they had gone through all the stands in the sector 5 aisle and stopped at the end to get styrofoam cups of mulled wine and hot steaming potato and leek soup with crusty bread. It was filling and warmed them up after a long few hours spent standing outside. It didn't get nearly as cold in Midgar as it had in Nibelheim, but Cloud knew that lifelong Midgar citizens found the winter there to be plenty cold.

After their late dinner sitting on some upturned buckets beside the soup stand, Cloud and Aerith started to peruse the rest of the bazaar hoping for a good gift. They were moving faster by then, taking less time to look over every item closely and instead walking up and down aisles hoping something would grab their attention. Aerith was still hard to pin down, but it seemed like she was more focused by then, only really pointing out things that looked more useful like leather wax or nice bulky sweaters or cute mittens. Cloud found a small chocobo ornament made from chocobo feathers glued carefully to a ball of styrofoam, but that was struck down too. “That's a gift for you, not for Zack,” Aerith had said. She wasn't wrong.

It was getting late when they finally made it all the way to the other end of the bazaar and some of the stands were starting to pack up, the crowds much thinner.

"This is hopeless," Cloud muttered as they kept walking. "We're going to miss the last train if we keep looking much longer."

"Don't give up!" Aerith chided him. "If you don't get something today, you're in big trouble you know!"

"Ugh," Cloud responded. Then, tipping his head back he gave a much more enthusiastic "Uuuuugh!"

Aerith snorted and shoved him. They walked a few more steps quietly, both of them despairing when Aerith gasped and grabbed Cloud hard at the elbow.

"Ouch. What?" Cloud grumbled, pulling his smarting arm out of her tight grip.

"Cloud, look!" Aerith exclaimed, pointing at a small booth with a white sign taped up above it before taking off for it without glancing back to make sure Cloud was following. The sign said 'South Coast Imports' and even from a distance Cloud could tell that all the items they had were beach themed with tiki wood and colorful statues and woven grass baskets. Frowning, Cloud followed Aerith at a much more sedate pace.

Once he reached her, she was bouncing in place in front of a middle aged man with deep tan skin who was struggling to keep a smile on his face.

"This is it, Cloud!" she exclaimed. "They have to have something here for Zack."

"You think so?" Cloud said doubtfully. He glanced around at the stuff in the small stand. There was a lot of stuff, things on tables, under tables, hung on cork board and hanging from the canopy. But, it all looked super kitschy to Cloud. He knew Zack was from the South Coast, but he had never seen him rock a shark tooth necklace so he wasn't sure what he was supposed to get there.

"Sure I do!" Aerith responded confidently. "Sir, do you have anything from Gongaga?" she asked, turning back to the owner of the stand.

"Gongaga," the man repeated, his eyebrows climbing up his forehead. "That's a pretty small place, but I think I have a few things here somewhere."

Aerith turned to Cloud triumphantly while the older man turned around to sort through some boxes of items he had shoved under a table. After just a few moments he returned with a handful of items which he put on the table in front of them after pushing a few other things out of the way. When Cloud stepped forward, he saw that he had laid out a white cloth headband with careful dark blue stitching along the edge, a small grass pouch, woven with dyed strands to form an appealing design on the front, and a clay bird with a hole on its tail, back and in its beak.

"What are they?" Cloud asked slowly. He knew what the headband was, but the other two just seemed like odd things to him.

"This is a headband popular in Gongaga, especially among the fishermen," the man said, holding it up for a moment. "This here," he said indicating the woven pouch, "is a talisman containing dried herbs and sand which the locals say bring good luck and keep away evil spirits." The owner infused his voice with as much gravitas as he could while explaining that. "And, this bird is a popular toy for children in Gongaga. It's a whistle," he explained before bringing it to his lips and letting out such a powerful screech that had not only Cloud and Aerith flinching back but most of the people at the surrounding stands as well.

"Uh," Cloud hesitated before glancing at Aerith for confirmation. He knew that Zack would probably be ecstatic to get a gift from his hometown, but they were such weird things. He wasn't sure if they would be unacceptable gifts.

But, he needn't even voice his concerns. Aerith's expression was shining with happiness and excitement, her bright green eyes sparkling with it.

"I'll take the headband and the talisman," Cloud said shortly. The man enthusiastically agreed, gathering up the items and putting them in a small brown paper bag while Cloud dug around in his pockets for some Gil.

"Aw! Not the bird?" Aerith pouted, reaching out with one long pretty finger to tap it a few times until it toppled over on its side.

"Zack doesn't need to be any louder than he already is," Cloud grumbled, earning a delighted giggle from Aerith.

"Excuse me, sir!" Aerith said as the man came back to exchange change with Cloud. "Could I buy that bird whistle?"

"Sure thing, Miss," he agreed quickly.

Cloud suppressed a cringe. He was sure he would be hearing the whistle again soon.

* * *

The day of Yule started pretty uneventfully. When Cloud was a teenager in Nibelheim, he would have started before dawn out looking for a huge yule log to put on the fire, one that would be able to burn all day long. When he got home, his mom would have made a big breakfast with lots of sausages and breads and jams. They would spend the day inside with each other drinking mulled wine or eggnog. Traditionally, for dinner you would go into the square and enjoy a huge feast with the entire village. Cloud and his mother had attended when he was very young, but they had stopped by the time he was eight or nine. Instead, they would share a big meal together by the last dying crackles of the yule log.

Cloud and Zack lived in a claustrophobically small apartment in sector 7. There was no fireplace to burn a yule log, let alone trees to cut down to get one. Zack still insisted on a big breakfast, though the food was more like what he would have had in Gongaga than the sausages and potatoes that were available during winter in Nibelheim.

Fresh fruit was still pretty expensive in Midgard, but Zack had rustled up apples and oranges from somewhere and sliced them up with nuts and drizzled honey along with creamy yogurt and fluffy crepes.

"When did you have time to get all this?" Cloud had asked in surprise, still rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he sat down at the table.

"I was able to sneak away yesterday during lunch and grab some stuff from the market," Zack grinned, taking a seat himself and loading his crepe up with fruit and whipped cream.

Cloud suppressed a wince at realizing that he and Zack had visited the bazaar mere hours apart from one another. Instead, he stabbed a slice of pear smothered in honey with a fork and shoved it in his mouth.

"Mmf!" he groaned around the mouthful. "Fuck, that's good," he groaned after swallowing.

"Right!?" Zack exclaimed. His first crepe was already almost gone, but luckily he had a lot more stacked on a plate between them. "I can't wait until we start getting pineapples and star fruit and shit in something other than a can. You'll love it, it's so good!"

Cloud kept eating and let Zack go on about the different fruits that were common in his home village. Eventually, Zack took a pause to eat the rest of his crepes and Cloud picked up with his own examples of foods he missed from home. Elderberries picked in early winter, sweet potatoes dug up from nearly frozen ground in late fall. Sweet wines in the spring made from berries and apples and pears.

"Maybe we should visit Gongaga next year," Cloud suggested as they cleaned up the last few crepes, using them mostly with just honey as everything else was gone between the two of them.

Zack hummed noncommittally and shoved a whole crepe in his mouth. Zack still had his parents in his home village and had visited by himself a few years ago. Cloud got the feeling that he was the reason Zack didn't go back more often, but didn't want to push it.

Neither of them suggested going to Nibelheim. There was nothing and no one waiting for them there.

"Hey! Let's exchange presents!" Zack suggested with a determined clap of his hands, changing the subject with the subtlety of a bull.

"Sure," Cloud agreed, anxiety starting to gnaw at his full stomach, though he tried to hide it.

Zack led the way from their small kitchenette back to their bed, the blankets still a tangled mess. He dug around under the bed for a moment before coming up with a small box wrapped in pale blue paper and tied with simple twine.

Cloud sat down slowly on the edge of the bed and accepted the small package, Zack quickly sitting down beside him and watching him expectantly.

It struck Cloud all at once that this was probably the first Yule gift he had received, that he could remember. Things had always been so tight at home, it was an unspoken rule between him and his mom that they wouldn't exchange presents. Maybe he had received some toys when he was younger, but he couldn’t remember it. He hadn't spent Yule with anyone else since his mother.

Tears stung at the back of his eyes and he hadn't even opened the box yet.

"Open it," Zack urged, bumping his shoulder into Cloud's in a fond way.

Cloud took a deep breath, tried to push all those tender feelings away, and untied the twine. He ripped open the paper along the seam on the bottom to reveal a simple thin cardboard box, the flaps at the top folded together. He used the edge of a fingernail to pull the flaps apart and shook the contents into his palm.

What came out was a cute yellow chocobo ornament made of real feathers stuck into round styrofoam balls, complete with orange wire feet and little black button eyes. Cloud was sure that it was the same one he had looked at the day before, the one that Aerith had scolded him was a better gift for him than for Zack.

"Well?" Zack asked with another shove at his shoulder. "What do you think?"

When Cloud glanced up at him with damp eyes, Zack was nervously pulling on a rubber band that seemed to eternally live on his wrist.

"I really like it," Cloud croaked. He no longer tried to disguise the tears threatening the edge of his eyelashes. This was Zack, after all. What was the point?

"Oh," Zack replied, his own voice getting choked up. "Good. Good, I'm glad!" Zack repeated before grabbing Cloud and pulling him into a tight hug.

They stayed like that for a while, Cloud using Zack's shoulder to wipe his tears and Zack sticking his nose in Cloud's hair, taking deep breaths like he could breathe him in if he just tried hard enough.

"I got you something too," Cloud muttered as he pulled away, feeling slightly more under control.

"Oh!" Zack exclaimed, sounding sincerely surprised.

Cloud frowned at him. "You thought I wouldn't get you anything," Cloud stated, his voice flat and unimpressed.

"No! I mean, yes, I thought, uh," Zack fumbled, seeming unsure whether to lie or explain himself or what.

Cloud sighed. "Don't worry about it. It's better if you don't have high expectations," he said as he stood up from the bed and went to the small metal wardrobe that they shared. He had shoved the paper bag with the two small tissue wrapped packages in the back of the top shelf behind a pile of old boots. He extracted the bag from its hiding place before going back to the bed and handing it to Zack as he sat back down.

Zack stared at the bag for a while, like he wasn't sure what to do with it.

"Are you going to open it?" Cloud prompted him when the wait had gone on too long.

"Oh, yeah! Sorry, just- Uh, yes, I am going to open it," Zack said slowly after fumbling again.

Cloud frowned at Zack as he carefully opened the little paper bag that was patterned on the outside with bright red prints of evergreen trees and snowflakes. Zack peered cautiously into the bag before reaching in with two fingers to draw out the little tissue paper packages. He then sat them in his lap and stared at them like he wasn't sure if they would bite him if he moved wrong or something.

"Zack," Cloud warned him, his patience with Zack's weird behavior running thin.

"Sorry, just. Two gifts! You know, I don't think some people would believe you're capable of it!" Zack babbled.

Cloud kept up his unimpressed stare. "Are you some people?" he asked flatly.

"No!" Zack was quick to protest. "I mean, I wasn't worried! Not for a second!"

Cloud frowned at Zack and Zack kept an uncomfortable looking smile plastered on his face until Cloud cracked and snapped out a "Just open them."

"Yes, sir!" Zack laughed, seeming happy to be out of the staring contest.

He ripped through the tissue paper with significantly less care than Cloud, but froze the second that the first gift was revealed. He removed the rest of the wrapping paper considerably slower. Once he was done, the headband sat white and crisp in his lap.

When Zack had stared down at the headband without expression for too long, Cloud jumped in to explain. "It's supposed to be from Gongaga," he said. "At least, the guy who sold it to me said it was. Both things are. But, uh, you would probably know better than me."

"Yeah," Zack croaked, clearing his throat before he continued. "Yeah, this looks exactly like the one my dad had," Zack said, turning a watery smile on Cloud.

Cloud had to look away, embarrassed. "Open the other one," he said, looking mostly at their laps as they sat side by side.

He watched Zack's hands as he ripped through the tissue paper of the second package considerably faster, the small talisman tumbling out in a matter of seconds.

Zack gave a pleased laugh as he picked it up. "Oh man!" he exclaimed. "This thing really takes me back!"

"Really?" Cloud asked, daring a look up at Zack's face. It was shining with good humor, tears still shining in his eyes, but the rest of his face was relaxed, grinning as wide and easy as he ever did.

"Yeah! I had one when I was a little kid! The elders make all kids wear them. They're supposed to protect from drowning," Zack explained. "They work too, I think," he said as he threw the leather cord around his neck, letting the talisman hang in the center of his chest.

"You think so?" Cloud asked, looking at the talisman curiously.

"Yeah. When I was like thirteen or so I was swimming in the ocean when an undertow started to pull me out. Luckily, I was able to float and conserve my energy until one of the fishermen saw me and hauled me in on their boat. I lost the talisman during all that and all the elders were like 'the gods have smiled on us and taken the talisman instead of this precious child!'" Zack recounted, using a deep grave voice for the elders.

Cloud snorted, one corner of his mouth quirking up in a smile. "Well, I'm glad it worked. What a bummer it would have been if you had died."

"What a bummer, indeed," Zack nodded in agreement, grinning at Cloud who grinned back. "Hey," Zack continued, his voice dropping into sincerity, "Thanks a lot for my presents. I really love them."

Cloud dropped his gaze for a moment before looking back up. "Yeah, same to you," he said. "You'll have to thank Aerith, too. She helped me go shopping."

Zack grinned wide at that. "Definitely! Glad to know she had both our backs on this one," he laughed.

"She always does," Cloud agreed.

"Hey, do you think we could both fit in the shower together?" Zack asked, getting up with a stretch, flashing a strip of his stomach between his t-shirt and his sweats.

"That last time we tried, you almost got a concussion," Cloud reminded him with a doubtful look.

"I'm not about to let that stop me," Zack replied, hands on his hips.

Cloud sighed as he stood up, as well. "Well, it is Yule. Maybe we'll have a Yule miracle and it will work out."

"That's the spirit!" Zack exclaimed before hauling Cloud by the elbow toward the tiny closet that served as their shower.

They didn't manage to both fit in the shower, at least not enough for anything fun to happen, but they did spend a pleasant afternoon together before going to seventh heaven for the large scale feast that acted as the main attraction for Yule.

When Cloud went to bed that night, he realized that he had just had the nicest Yule holiday that he had ever had. Things were still hard, but maybe that was an omen that things were looking up. Maybe, things would only get better from there on out. He could only hope.


End file.
